steampunk poll seattle chosen as most

Sunday, May 23, 2010

I’ve been negligent in updating the results of the last two polls, so I shall go about addressing that small issue. Two polls took place during the past few months, and with results that I am certain can be debated. The first was fairly simplistic – Which style of airship of airship best represents a Steampunk lighter than air vehicle? The choices were straightforward, as were the results…

The Zeppelin-type (e.g. a rigid or semi-rigid air container, with an undercarriage for persons/crew was by far the preferred selection, with 138 votes in favor (63% of all votes cast).
The next most popular choice was the “Flying Ship” (e.g. a traditional nautical/sailing ship suspended from an air-balloon), obtaining 64 votes (or 29% percent of the total votes cast).
This was followed by “airships with no visible propulsion”, which had 8 votes (3% of the total), and rounded out by “other means of propulsion”, which had 7 votes (also considered 3% of the total).

This provided a grand total of 98%. Hm – well, the 2% margin of difference won’t make a difference in the outcome, but still, a bit odd. So, Zeppelin-type is the favorite of the readers, I’d say.

The next poll I thought (correctly) to be more controversial – which Western US City would be considered the most Steampunk. With Victoria chosen as the most Steampunk Canadian city, I wondered which of the other western cites would come out ahead? The top choice for the title on the US West Coast was… Seattle, with 87 votes of 232 cast, or 37.5% of the total. The San Francisco Bay Area was second, with 69 votes, or 29.7% of the total. San Fran was followed by Portland (38 votes, or 16.4% of the total), which was followed by “Other” (18 votes, or 7.8% of the total). The remaining two cites, Los Angeles (12 votes, or 5.2% of the total) and Denver (3.4% or 8 votes) rounded out the remainder of the selections.

I had a feeling that Seattle and San Francisco would be fighting for the top two spots, with Portland possibly upstaging them as a dark horse selection, but, I am not quite sure what to make of “Other” placing above LA or Denver. I’d be quite interested in any thoughts of which city I may have missed in the selection process – or perhaps there is something else that led to “Other” being chosen? Please feel free to postulate in the comments!